The first RSV vaccine gets approved as pharma bigshots race into the $10B market
Medical milestone… 60+ years after it was discovered, respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, finally has a vaccine. The FDA approved GlaxoSmithKline's Arexvy (named to sound like “RSV”) vaccine on Wednesday, and the shot could go on sale within weeks.
- Life-saver: RSV is a potentially life-threatening respiratory infection that affects mostly young kids and older adults. It’s the leading reason young children are hospitalized in the US, and 160K+ people die from RSV globally each year.
Pharma frenzy… Four other RSV vaccines are on track to land on pharmacy shelves this year. Analysts predict that the shot’s market could be worth $10B by 2032, and GSK expects to earn as much as $3.7B in Arexvy sales. The London-based company may’ve crossed the RSV finish line first, but other Big Pharma titans are close behind.
Jabbing competition: Pfizer's RSV vaccine is up next, with FDA approval expected this month. And AstraZeneca, Sanofi, and Moderna all have shots in the works.
Audience overlap: Pfizer’s first RSV vax and GSK’s are both tailored to people over 60, as is Moderna’s (whenever it’s ready), which could lead to a marketing showdown.
Covid accelerated the vax race… Pharma companies are racing to be first to the next big vaccine. Since no one was “Team GSK” for Covid (it made a booster only late last year), GSK has ground to cover. But since it already makes a leading shingles vaccine, nabbing the RSV market could give it greater vax dominance. Meanwhile, Moderna and Pfizer are exploring new products to offset slipping demand for Covid vaccines. Moderna reported its first quarterly profit yesterday, but its sales were down by more than $4B, since the Covid vax is the only product it sells.